Hair Cloning News 2013
Q:
Hello Dr Mohebi,
I recently read an article on the web that you commented on Harvard research for hair cloning. I am in my early 40’s, fairly broke, and eagerly awaiting the day that hair cloning is successful and available to the market. For the past decade, I keep hearing the same promises that it will arrive in 5 years, but still no luck. Can you comment on why it is not here yet, and perhaps when we will see it. Thanks in advance.
A:
Hair multiplication also referred to as “Hair Cloning” is a hot topic in hair restoration over the last few years it is garnering more and more attention. The research for multiplying hair (hair cloning) has been going on for years now in several centers around the world over the past few years. The study that we performed with collaboration with some scientists in Cedar Sinai is only one of the many steps that need be taken to successfully multiply hair.
Hair multiplication would offer superior benefits to patients and represent a significant advance for medical science and hair restoration. Still the march towards this being a medical reality moves slowly for a several different reasons:
- Although hair loss has detrimental effects on patients’ lives, is yet to be recognized as a burning issue in medical field to warrant more funding for hair loss research.
- Hair multiplication studies are usually done in private setting without the support of larger institutions such as universities and NIH (National Institute of Health).
- The growth rates of the hair stem cells are extremely slow in cell cultures. That makes the overall period of hair multiplication timelier and adds exponentially to the cost of these studies.
The combination of above three factors and other obstacles in this process has made progress of hair multiplication very slow. My best estimation of current research is that hair multiplication is probably at least 8 years away from practical medical application. The reason for this is that any new medical treatment or device needs to go through different phases to obtain FDA approval for its use in the U.S.
The last phase necessary in development of a new treatment is ‘clinical trials’. The phase three is done on volunteer patients to find out more about long term complications that might be associated with the treatment. At this time no study has reached the clinical trials stage this makes it unlikely that we can have hair cloning available to public within the next eight years.
